Moral Crossroads on Coal Exports

By Tom Kenworthy and Kate Gordon
Posted on August 1, 2011, 9:00 am

In late March, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar traveled to Cheyenne, Wyoming, to announce that his department would soon sell leases to 752 million tons of coal from public holdings in the Powder River Basin, and was proceeding on future sales of an additional 1.6 billion tons.

Salazar called coal "a critical component of America’s comprehensive energy portfolio, as well as Wyoming’s economy" and said "it’s important that we continue to encourage safe production of this important resource." Salazar made no mention of the potential for some of that coal being sold and shipped to Asia. He may have been the only person in Wyoming that day with an interest in energy who wasn’t thinking about coal exports.